Hen sitting on eggs...is THIS normal?

[Hangin Wit My Peeps]

You guys have been very helpful! I would LOVE to hear more success stories of chicks being raised in the hen house with the others. I'm just so scared they will kill them. Hubby tells me to leave them be and she will protect them. I feel better knowing she is most likely getting off the nest every day. I have not smelled anything bad near the nest and I have lifted her once and didn't see any poo so I bet she is doing a great job doing just what she is suppose to do and I'm stressed for no reason at all! So far she has been a great broody. She never pecks me at all though. She makes a funny clucking sound and puffs up but that is it. She has always been my fav and she loves to be picked up.

 

[dancingbear]

I pick my broodies up and check under them every day until the eggs hatch. A dedicated brooder with strong broody instincts won't stop just because you pick her up. It also gives you chance to check for broken eggs, and clean up the other eggs and replace bedding in the nest if any did break.

I've seen hens successfully hatch eggs when I was sure they were all dead from being repeatedly chilled, (I had a hen that could never remember the right nest) from being washed off two or three times during incubation because of broken eggs in the nest, etc. Then, at 21 days, there were chicks, sometimes to my great surprise! It's amazing what some of them will survive. Then other times, you lose some for no apparent reason.

From 18 inches, if there's just a nice pile of loose hay underneath for them to land on, they should be fine. But they won't be able to get back up there, mom will need an alternate spot for nighttime.

ETA: I went back and saw you have a 'bator, if you have a 3 day spread on the eggs she still has, if there are some still in the nest when she takes the first chicks out, you might stick them in the bator. I'd set it up a couple of days before the eggs are due to start hatching, to get the temp adjusted right. The worst that'll happen is the won't hatch. If they do, you might be able to sneak them in with mom at night. That's kinda of a crapshoot, some will accept more chicks, some won't. I have one that'll adopt anything, even when her clutch is half grown, but that's unusual.

 

[Rainbowbirds-of-a-Feather]

Okay, That is alot of questions and I will do my best to not miss any for you.


(8+eggs): Those eggs you want hatched are they labled? Because if other hens are laying in the same nest the eggs will hatch at different times. Which, if the hen desides to leave the unhatched eggs are lost. So I hoep you have an alternative hatching source. Labling helps you take away the eggs you don't want hatched. Easy removal of freshly laid eggs.

water: Usually Broody hens will go out of the nest to poo(a big stinky Sulfur stinky poo. You will tell by the smell then the sight..ewwwwwww) and eat/drink so you are fine. Unless she is a less dominant hen and then she will wait till the other hen moves after laying. But is she pushes her self in there the eggs may be moved around and get chilled/crushed.

Leaving her in the pen she is in now:

I definately have experience in that. I lable eggs to take away the ones I do not want her to hatch. But hens will still go in to lay till the day of hatch So know the start date and figure out the hatch date. When you are in three days of hatch place a coop wire cover over nest box enterence so no one goes in and no one goes out till hatched. I have done it when I see my first PIP and there is hens that still lay in the nest.

I make sure I bring water to the hen and place her mouth in the water so she drinks. If not I put a can with water and another can with food. Big enough for her head to go in but high so chicks do not drown. I usually change it to another type when babies are born so mamma hen can drink w/ kids.

Caution: with babies in the same coop I have had good and bad experiences. Other hens left her alone while others times hens pecked at babies and mom. So after that negative action on hen-mates I changed to isolation for mama and chicks in a mini run/house in same cage or out od cage. Again the option is up to you. Just watch.

I hope this helps good luck!!

 

[Ridgerunner]

This is the address of the webpage about broody hens. It is worth a read.

http://www.themodernhomestead.us/article/broody-hens-1.html

I saw there were a lot of post while I was composing mine. I knew you would get a lot of good responses. Great people at this site.

I saw the topic on the height of the nest. By the way, posting the picture was a good idea. We had a hen that hatched a brood in the barn above the corn crib. The nest was 8 to 10 feet off the ground. Now the ground was fairly soft, wet straw and cow and horse manure mostly. Not like landing on concrete. But that hen got the chicks to the ground. The only way I could figure it was that they jumped. None were hurt. Baby wood ducks hatch out in nests many feet above the water and jump to get to the water. It was on the TV recently, probably the Discover channel. Anyone that has done a belly flop knows how hard water can be. Definitely have something soft like loose litter under the nest from day 20 on, but I'd let the mother hen take care of getting them down. I think you are more likely to do more harm than good by trying to help.

My experience was limited to that one time and I did not see them getting down, so this is only my opinion. If anyone out there has direct experience, I certainly defer to them.

 

[Hangin Wit My Peeps]

From 18 inches, if there's just a nice pile of loose hay underneath for them to land on, they should be fine. But they won't be able to get back up there, mom will need an alternate spot for nighttime.

DO hens usually take their young back to the same nest they were hatched from? I could prob put a piece of plywood as a ramp to the nest if we needed to. I will most likely take the hen and the eggs and make a new nest for them in a caged part of the hen house on the last three days. I'm still so amazed at how the humidity works under the hen...when we have to have it just right in the incubator...does she regulate her body temps to account for the humidity? I just have to do more searching on this. LOL
Thanks for all the wonderful advise! I will keep all of it in mind for sure and put it to good use

Ridge, I just seen your post and thanks for that info. I will go read it now...yes I got some great responses and it sure does help put my mind at ease! I mostly did this for my dad who has been wanting to see this for so long and has never gotten a chance to. He's 83 so I thought I would let her sit so he gets a chance to see that. He just loves our chickens.​

 

[Hangin Wit My Peeps]

Thank you Ozark for showing those pics! ADORABLE! I'm so excited to watch her mother them. I'm tempted to take a few weeks off work just so I can watch them. LOL My hubby is worried it may be too cold for them at this time of year. They are due to hatch on March 14th or 15th. I assured him mommy will keep them warm. Am I right on that one?

 

[Hangin Wit My Peeps]

Today I made her get off the nest to poo and drink. I didn't see her poo but she did drink and eat. She was off for about 7 min and I wasn't watching her all the time (the other hens always demand my attention). I sure hope she pooed. There was NO poo in the nest at all either so that was good. For some reason the other hens kept pecking at her feathers on the back of her neck, I think because she was all fluffed up? She is usually the most dominant hen so it confused me when the wimps come up to peck her and she didn't peck back. She didn't jump back on the nest herself so I picked her up and put her there. She settled in nicely and is now back to her job. She did collect three extra eggs on top of what she was sitting on making her total to a dozen so the others are laying on top of her. I took those away (I have a big X on the eggs I gave her to start with). It was amusing to watch her cluck around complaining the whole time she was off the nest. So far so good

 

[DDRanch]

Thank you so much for this thread and the links for letting a broody raise babies. I am wanting to get some fertilized eggs and set them under a broody this Spring so this info is so valuable for me.

Please post pics of the babies and any other info you learn from your experience as it certainly is helping me. Thank you!!!!!!!

 

[ozark hen]

Quote:
You are so right!! She will keep them warm..do not worry about them but do move her and the eggs down to ground level.

 

[ozark hen]

I removed this as it was a repeat